An Experiment
by Tiggy the Hopeless Romantic
Summary: Avaric does a little scientific investigation, amid pretty girls, depressed Munchkins and large quantities of alcohol. Elpharic, mentions of Gloq.


It was dark in the pub, and everyone had had more than enough to drink. It was a Saturday night at Shiz University, but school was the last thing on anyone's mind. Least of all, Avaric's. Not that school was ever really at the forefront of his mind. He didn't care as long as he was passing, and even then he was wonderful at charming professors into letting him do extra credit.

He watched his friends and aquentances. They were a mis-matched group, as bad of one as he could recall seeing. Yet something worked, something clicked. It wouldn't last forever, but it would last the moment. And the moment was all that mattered. What happened tomorrow would happen tomorrow, you simply wait to deal with it when you have to.

Boq seemed to be having a rough night of it. Some mild depression had fallen over him, and Avaric suspected it was the remains of his crush on Miss Glinda rearing it's head. He poked Avaric in the ribs, "Can you get me... get me a..."

Avaric nodded, "Get you something to forget your troubles? Right on it's way." He knew Boq would regret it in the morning- he would already have a horrible hangover. But a friend was a friend, and Avaric was never one to coddle. So he made his way to get up, walking to the barmaid. On the way he collided with Elphaba, probably doing the same for her friends as he was for his- he snuck a look, and Glinda herself looked no more cheerful than Boq.

"Excuse you, Avaric. I'm sorry you weren't watching where you were going," Elphaba shot off, sarcastically. She smoothed the front of her dress down. Amazing, she was still able to fire off a catty retort. While not as intoxicated as Boq, she was clearly on her way.

His eyes snapped back to her. "Yeah," he murmurred. There was one he didn't quite get. Elphaba Thropp, the green girl. Not so green tonight, though. The dim lighting made it less clear, especially once she stood in the shadow. The green wasn't such a bad thing, anyway. Just different. He wondered what a black and white photograph of her would look like. He doubted you would notice anything unusual about her. She was pretty.

_What the hell?_

"Having a good time, Greenie?" _There, that was better._

"Wonderful. Get dragged out by a mopey best friend, who proceeded to get drunk off her ass, whining about how she never gets to do what she really wants to. Then, I get run over by one of my _oh-so-closest friends_, who then makes a low remark about my skin color. I'm having a fantastic night, Avaric."

He flinched, but didn't apologyze. "So Glinda's in love with Boq?"

"She'll never admit it, but she is. Something had to have happened between them at Lake Chorge but neither of them will tell me what. So he mopes over her, and she mopes over him. And I get stuck getting her drinks, and in a little while it will be my duty to hold her hair back as she throws up over and over again, all the while whining about how she'll never drink again."

An odd moment, Avaric and Elphaba had something in common. "And I'll spend the night trying to pawn the Munchkin off on some girl, hoping she will be there to tend to him when he's puking, or at least get The Blonde One off of his mind."

"This is ridiculous," she muttered.

"Very. I still say they should sleep together and get it over with. C'mon, we were headed to the bar, weren't we?" He turned to walk toward it.

She raised her eyebrows, but followed after a minute. "I really shouldn't condone either of my best friends just sleeping together to get it over with."

"It would do them good," Avaric insisted, putting in his drink order, and then hers. "They would get it over with, and then maybe they would quit mooning over each over. That, or if it was good enough, Glinda could come off her high horse and stoop to his level. Though I would hardly call it stooping. Her blue blood isn't even so blue."

She was surprised. "You think that would work? You think Glinda, a Gillikinese could be happy with a mere Munchkinlander?"

He looked away. "Who says she wouldn't? I know I'm an asshole ninety-five percent of the time, but Boq's a good guy. I don't think your frilly roommate is any a better person than he is."

"So if a Munchkin maiden came through, you would give her the same shot you would give a noble Gillikinese Girl? Even if it meant loosing some social standing?"

He shrugged. "Like I said, I like to think about five percent of the time I'm a decent guy." He took a swig of his drink and decided, _what the hell_? He leaned over and kissed Elphaba on the lips, hard for a long moment. Then he pulled away as quickly as he could, hoping to get out of range so she could neither kick him or slap him.

She did neither, just blinked at him. "What the hell?"

"You're Munchkinlander. I wanted to see what I would do if I had a pretty Munchkinlander girl in front of me." He smiled, somewhat confident she wasn't horribly angry. "Not bad, the little experiment was a success."

She was going to say something, but decided against it. She grabbed her drink and Glinda's leaving Avaric to pay for them. He thought he heard her murmur something about, "so not a pretty Munchkinlander girl."

He paid for the drinks, putting Boq's down on the table that his Munchkin friend was now passed out upon. He leaned back, hands behind his head, watching the table where Elphaba and Glinda sat. She said something to Glinda, and turned her head to look at him. He smiled back at her. She flipped him off.

Yes, the experiment had been a success.


End file.
